


for the asking

by irrelevant



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, D Brothers, M/M, emotional incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-06
Updated: 2011-08-06
Packaged: 2017-10-22 07:14:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/235317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irrelevant/pseuds/irrelevant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the one where Ace, Luffy and Sabo are at university and sharing an apartment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	for the asking

**Author's Note:**

> for Hilian

He always knows when Luffy gets home because Luffy always trips over Sabo’s bass on his way in. Sabo always leaves it sitting in the foyer no matter how many times Ace yells at him to move it; and sure, he moves it when Ace yells but that only happens after Luffy’s already tripped over it.

Today Ace doesn’t waste his time yelling. Sabo’s door is closed and his music is on loud enough that Ace can hear it with _his_ door closed, so there doesn’t seem to be any point. And anyway, Luffy already tripped.

Ace can hear him yelling from the foyer, “Sabooooo! Sabo I’m gonna kick your ass so hard you asshole that hurt!” Quickly followed by, “Aaaaace, Aaaaaaaaaace, Sabo left his stupid bass out again, make him come out so I can kick his ass!”

Ace looks down at his books. He was actually planning on studying this afternoon, but if Luffy’s on a rampage that’s probably not going to happen. And yeah, that’s definitely, not probably, because Sabo’s music goes off just before his door slams shut, and his footsteps are angry, pounding their way past Ace’s door.

And Sabo’s yelling, and now Luffy’s yelling again too, and Ace needs to go do something about that if he doesn’t want those weirdos upstairs (the tag on their mailbox says CP9 Commune, and seriously, what does that even mean?) calling the cops again.

It’s not, he thinks as he gets up and walks over to the door, navigating his way around piles of dirty clothes, game controllers and Luffy’s pizza boxes from last night, really surprising that Luffy sings lead. He’s got the lung capacity for it, and by the time Ace makes it out to the living room his ears are ringing with it.

“—because your stupid bass was right there and I landed on my ass again!”

“You’re stupid! You never watch where you’re going!”

“I don’t have to! It’s my apartment!”

“No,” Ace interrupts, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms, “it’s my apartment. So shut the fuck up before I kick both your asses out.”

They both look at him, Sabo guilty as hell, but Luffy’s face just lights up. “Ace!”

Ace pushes away from the wall and braces himself. He doesn’t want to get knocked out or end up on _his_ ass, which is what usually happens when Luffy throws himself at somebody without thinking it through first, which he never does. He can only hold one idea in his head at a time; he’s probably already forgotten that Ace has a reason to be pissed.

But staying pissed at Luffy is another one of life’s pointless endeavors—Ace stopped trying years ago and he’s not going to start again now. He catches Luffy because that’s what big brothers do, they catch their idiot kid brothers when they start to fall; supports Luffy’s ass while Luffy grabs his shoulders and wraps his legs around him and says, “Hey, you know what?”

“This is you so probably not,” Ace says, and then he and Sabo are laughing at Luffy’s protruding lower lip.

“Dork,” Sabo says, coming up behind Ace and ruffling Luffy’s hair. Luffy sticks his tongue out at him over Ace’s shoulder.

“Asshole. Don’t think I forgot about your stupid bass.”

Ace shifts his weight to one hand so he can smack him on the head with the other.

“Ow!”

“You _will_ forget in about three seconds,” he says, ignoring Luffy’s hurt look. “So shut up about it. Jesus, Sabo, will you just move the damn thing already?”

Sabo sighs and wanders over to his bass, rolling his eyes at Ace as he turns around. “Can I go now? I’ve got a paper due tomorrow and a test on Friday.”

“Yeah, I could tell what with the decibel level and all,” Ace drawls. Luffy snickers against his shoulder; his sandals are digging into Ace’s back; Ace reaches around and tugs one off; Luffy kicks the other one at the wall.

Sabo is watching them, a weird half smile tugging at his mouth. “That’s just how I roll.”

“Freak. Get lost,” Ace says. “Hey, dinner in two hours, don’t forget! And don’t expect me save you any if you do,” he calls after him. “Even if I wanted to I couldn’t with the bottomless pit around.”

Sabo’s answer is muffled by two walls. His door slams again (he’ll probably lock it, too, since Luffy’s home) and his music starts up again, even louder than before.

Ace says, “You’re not seven any more, lead ass,” and drops Luffy.

Tries to drop him, anyway, but Luffy refuses to be dropped. He hangs onto Ace with both legs and arms and mumbles something into Ace’s shoulder.

Ace stands there with his arms hanging loose at his sides and Luffy wrapped around his waist and wonders, not for the first time, why his mom had to go and get married when he was ten. He’d never had a dad before; he didn’t _need_ one because Mom is just that awesome and Sabo will always be the most excellent best friend ever.

But Mom met Dragon the Dumbfuck and then six months after that Ace had a seven year old kid brother who spent half his time eating and/or picking his nose and the other half trailing around after Ace and Sabo when he wasn’t doing a combination of all those things at the same time.

Eleven years later Luffy’s still the albatross around Ace’s neck (or waist or head or legs or whatever part of him he happens to be grabbing). The snoring albatross. The idiot fell asleep still hanging onto him.

Ace blows out a long, slow breath. He curls his arms back under Luffy’s butt and rests his forehead on Luffy’s messy hair. It’s soft and tickly and it makes his nose itch. Makes him sneeze and pull away, huffing a laugh.

“Figures that you’d give me an allergy to you,” he tells the top of Luffy’s head as he hefts him higher, preparatory to carrying him back to his room. He could take the kid to his own room but Luffy would just wake up twice as soon and end up in Ace’s room anyway.

It’s easier to haul him along now than listen to him whine later.

Juggling Luffy from one hand to the other, Ace gets his door open. He kicks it shut behind him, circumnavigates the trash and dirty clothes gauntlet, and dumps Luffy on his futon. Luffy snorts, mutters, “Kick your ass.” Then he rolls onto his side and starts snoring again. Ace shakes his head and goes back to his books.

An hour later Luffy drapes his arms over Ace’s shoulders, rests his chin on Ace’s head and says, “When’s dinner?”

Ace tilts his head back, pulling his glasses off as he does, and examines Luffy’s upside down face. “There’s cold pizza in the fridge. Or you could make dinner for a change.”

“Bleah. Where’s Saaaaaanji? Why’s he’s never here when I need him to be?”

“Don’t ask me what your weird friends do when they’re not messing up my floor. Oi, now you’re drooling on me. Man, Luffy, that’s—oh gross! You’re gonna get it now, twerp—”

Because Luffy just licked his cheek, long and messy like a dog, and now he’s laughing his stupid laugh and _not_ running away. He’s letting Ace tackle him down onto the futon like that’s what he wanted in the first place, and maybe it is.

Because he’s still laughing up at Ace, reaching up with both hands. Pulling him down and kissing him just as wet and messy as he licked him, but unlike getting licked by Luffy, getting kissed by him is wet and messy in really good ways.

Ace should get up right now, he knows. Get off Luffy and go make dinner since it’s his turn; he should leave right the fuck now but he already knows he’s not going to. He’s going to kiss Luffy back. Kiss him and press him down hard into the futon just to hear that little hum he makes every time Ace’s hands tighten around his wrists. He’s going to slide his hands down Luffy’s arms to his waist, run his hands up under Luffy’s t-shirt and all over skin he’s known for more than half his life.

It’s not smooth—skin never is, but especially not when it’s Luffy’s skin. He’s been in and out of trouble his whole life and his skin is a map with disaster markers all over it. Like the round puncture indent in his shoulder he got falling out of one tree into another tree when he was ten. He laughs and wriggles when Ace circles his finger around it, hums again when Ace pushes his shirt the rest of the way off, when he trails his fingers down Luffy’s chest to the appendectomy scar on his abdomen.

Ace looks down at his fingers, tanned skin dark against white scar tissue. Remembers how damn scared they all were and how sure he was that this was the time Luffy wasn’t going to pull up, pull out, make it through one more mess.

Luffy’s the kind of little brother who makes a big brother worry – always has been, always will be. Ace never wanted a little brother in the first place, and he hates worrying, but that’s been his life for eleven years and if that went away—

He doesn’t know what he’d do if it went away. Doesn’t know what would happen to him if Luffy wasn’t there for him to worry about.

He does know brothers don’t do this kind of thing; that older brothers aren’t supposed to suck kisses into their kid brother's skin until they’re squirming and panting and saying, “Hurry up!”

Ace isn’t supposed to drag dark blue shorts down jerking hips and suck Luffy’s cock into his mouth, feel Luffy’s hands tug and pull at his hair while he listens to him make the same kind of noises he does when he’s got a song in him that needs to come out or a plate of really good food in front of him.

It’s not what brothers do. But it’s what they do, Luffy and him, and he knows it’s just how things are in the same way he’s always known Luffy’s his brother. They’re brothers but they’re also this, and Ace is glad of it.

And he’s so fucking grateful Luffy wants this from him, too; that he wants it enough to just reach out take it. Because Luffy taking without asking means he can give Luffy what he wants and also have it himself without having to ask for it. Because that’s the only way he _can_ have it. The only way he’ll let himself.

And Luffy is whining and his hands are tightening in Ace’s hair. He’s leaking pre-come onto Ace’s tongue and his skin is slick, twisting under Ace’s hands. Ace tightens his fingers and takes him in as far as he can and that’s how he comes, wailing, his cock most of the way down Ace’s throat, the taste and smell of him thick and slightly bitter in Ace’s nose and the back of his mouth.

Ace pulls off, licking Luffy clean in one slick, sucking pop, and rests his chin on Luffy’s abdomen. Makes himself comfortable between Luffy’s legs and watches him.

He’s flat on his back, arms flung out, mouth and eyes open wide. Panting. And then he’s not and Ace is the one on his back because Luffy moves really freaking fast when he wants to and sex with him is kind of like a roller coaster: you’re never sure whether you’re up or down or half twisted around, sick to your stomach or coming your brains out.

But Luffy is pulling at his shirt and his shorts, chanting, “Off, off, now, off, Ace.” Which sounds like a really good idea because right now Ace wants Luffy’s skin and hands touching him everywhere, especially his cock, almost more than he wants a hit single. And since Luffy seems to want the same thing, Ace does the smart thing. He rolls Luffy back over, pulls his shirt off, and then he lets Luffy do whatever he wants.

Which is what he usually ends up doing, but as far as plans go it’s a good one. It works well for them, but then most things do. They’re lucky that way. Luffy always says it’s because their middle names both start with D. After which Sabo always says Luffy is full of it. Which is usually when Ace tells both of them to shut up, which is usually when they attack him, which usually ends up with Ace hauling Luffy off and doing what they’re doing now.

It’s pretty much a win-win all around.

And after everything, when they’re both half conscious and there’s come and sweat drying their bare skin together and Luffy is mostly asleep on top of him Ace says, “So what was I supposed to know?”

“Dunno,” Luffy mumbles. “When?”

Ace grabs a handful of hair and pulls his head up. “When you got home, stupid. The _first_ time you jumped me.”

Luffy’s laughter shakes them both; he grins at Ace and says, “Oh yeah. Remember that place Nami got us a gig at? Brook’s Place or something?”

“Yeah. And?” Ace says, shaking him a little, drawing the word out into a question when Luffy doesn’t say anything else. He’s too busy yawning.

“Huh? Oh.” Luffy yawns again and blinks at Ace. “I guess Brook really liked us because he told some producer lady about us. Um, I think her name’s Shakky? They’re coming to the Merry Go tomorrow night.”

Ace lets go of Luffy’s hair. He drops his head back down on the pillow and stares at the cheesy glow in the dark planet decals Luffy stuck to all their ceilings when he moved in. “And you were going to tell us, when?”

Luffy flops back down onto Ace. “Tried to,” he yawns. Which is actually true.

“You know,” Ace tells the ceiling, “I think having you for a brother is going to finish me off early. Live terrified, have a heart attack at twenty-two, leave an awesome looking corpse behind.”

He doesn’t mean it – or he only means it as a joke – but he’s forgotten who he’s talking to. He’s forgotten that you can’t talk to Luffy the way you talk to everyone else; he takes everything literally, including stuff like this.

And Luffy never takes anything lying down. He’s up and over Ace on his hands and knees before Ace can do any damage control, his face only a few inches away from Ace’s, intent and serious. “You won’t,” he says. “I won’t let you. Tell me how to stop scaring you.”

And that’s… “Fuck,” Ace says. His voice sounds as shaky as he feels. And, “C’mere,” and he pulls Luffy back down, wraps his arms around him. Says, “Yeah, I’m an idiot. It was a joke, dumbass,” and Luffy says, “Oh, okay,” then, “Can we have dinner now?”

And Ace laughs and laughs and turns his face into Luffy’s neck and thinks about how everything fits together even when you'd think it wouldn’t.

Sabo writes the words and Ace writes the music, but Luffy… Luffy makes the songs real. He sings rhythm and feeling and life into them the same way he gives those same things to everything and everyone around him, Ace included. And it's so big, such a huge thought and an even bigger feeling that Ace can't even begin to comprehend it, because it's too complicated for the most complex mind and also the simplest thing in the world. It's Luffy.

Whose stomach is currently rumbling against Ace's. “Hungry,” Luffy says in his ear and Ace laughs again and shoves him off.

“If you’re so hungry get moving,” he says over Luffy’s yelp, and then he gives him another shove and chases him laughing into the bathroom.


End file.
